Keep Calm and Carry On
by Whimsical Pixie
Summary: With the world in compete disarray Dolores can't help but feel as if she is the only person left in the world. That is until she runs into our crossbow wielding hunter. Will she be willing to fully trust these people or will she be driven away? Maybe Daryl can give her a reason to stay? Daryl/OC. One-sided Shane/O.C.
1. Chapter 1

It's been 2 months since the outbreak. In such a short amount of time it seems as if our nations population has been completely wiped out. I just might be the last person alive in America or quite possibly, the world. That sounds a bit overly dramatic but when the dead start rising then anything is possible. Still, I can't be too sure at this point. The public was kept isolated from the rest of the world early in the epidemic. If you were fortunate enough to have friends or family in another country maybe they could give you some news from the outside. They probably thought that keeping us here would control the spreading of this disease. All we know is that some cases showed up in Europe but we were never given any idea how severe it was. After that it was no longer even being discussed. For all we know they could have cleared it up by now or even found a cure. I like to believe that somewhere is safe but each day I have to live with these _things_ on my tail, I loose hope.

When this all started I was in New York City. Being summer, it was immensely crowded but honestly when isn't this place crowded. With all those people that turned, it was a miracle that I managed to escape. At the time I worked a store selling sporting goods and weapons ranging from guns to just about anything that had a blade. I even kept a bayonet. Before I escaped, I managed to stock up on anything important I could get my hands on then got the hell out of there before I become one of them. Any friends or family in the city, I just wrote off as dead. There was no way that I could get to them and they were most likely dead anyway. What was important is that I got out of there. It may have sounded selfish but my friends an family worked and lived in the heart of the city and it was summer. It would be hard to get to them even if all the people in this city were still alive.

If there were any doubts that my family was dead, the bombs dropped on the city and bridges confirmed it. When I stood on the streets of Jersey City overlooking New York I could help but feel like I was leaving more than my loved ones. This city was a part of me and held so many memories. I was born and raised in New York. Now with this pandemic I lost my family and my home. Even if all of this just blew over, I could never go back home. It was gone. Watching the military destroy my home was absolutely devastating. Everything that I knew and loved was taken away from me in less than a day.

With nothing else holding me down to this place, I picked up what little belongings I had and went in search for a car. I didn't know where I was driving but I hoped to find somewhere safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Perched in a tree, I aimed my rifle at the head of a raccoon. With a light squeeze what sounded like a puff of air resounded. It was quiet enough that anyone or anything far away wouldn't hear but if something was close by it would easily pinpoint my location. After all, a silencer can only do but so much. Quickly climbing down the tree I retrieved my dinner before scurrying away. I had always been extremely cautious, never staying in the same place for too long. In fact sleep had become a luxury for me. When it did happen it was for an hour at best, usually in the hours that the sun was up. My greatest fear was that a zombie would catch me off guard at night so I spent my nights on guard. Running from my original spot I stayed as quiet as possible an kept an eye out for any threats. My steps had been so silent and light that no one would have suspected that a person passed through. That was until an arrow came whizzing past my head and into a squirrel in treeing front of me. Coming to an abrupt stop, I tried to mask my fear as I clutched the hilt of my machete.

"Who's there?" I growled trying to sound as intimidating as possible. Stepping out of the bushes was a tall man with a crossbow pointed at my chest. "I'm not looking for trouble." the stranger said "I just want to get my catch." Slowly we circled one another until he stood beside the tree and retrieved his squirrel. Making sure he stayed at a respectable distance I sized up the stranger. He had that typical southern redneck look to him. His sleeves were ripped off exposing his strong tan biceps that were tense as he held his bow. I held his gaze as his bright blue eyes stared into mine. He didn't seem like a threat to me.

"I didn't even see you coming." he said, his crossbow now pointed at the ground. This eased some of the tension I was feeling because I loosened my grip on my machete. "It's alright. I didn't see you either." I replied.

"You alone?" the stranger asked. "If you are, we got a group of people. There's women and children too."

In the time that I have been on my own I have been pretty lonely but in that time I have seen what people are capable of. I never got involved but I saw enough to know that not everyone has good intentions. Maybe it's just because I'm from New York, where everything is a heartless money barter. I was raised to be skeptic. Still, I decided to take a leap of faith and followed him. I kept a close eye on him as I trailed behind him and kept my hand on my gun. The closer we got to his camp the more I could hear children playing. Now that I knew he was being legit and I didn't have to kill him in the woods I took this opportunity to introduce myself.

"My name's Dolores. You?" I said as politely as possible.

"Daryl. Yer not from these parts are you?" he ask glancing back at me.

"No, I'm fro-"

Before I could finish, a man with at cap that said cop came jogging to us. "Daryl who is this?" he said cautiously looking me up and down. "I'm Dolores." I answered cordially

Shane as he had introduced himself sighed and ran his hand down his face. "Usually I don't like the idea of newcomers but I'll make an exception." Looking down he saw the dead raccoon I had tucked between my belt an shorts. "You hunt?"

"Yeah. It's something I picked up in my travels." Smirking, Shane looked me up and down again but in a way that just made my skin crawl. "Good. Nice to know you got something to offer. Let's introduce you to the rest of the group." Shane lead me to them with his hand on the small of my back. I quickly brushed him off and acted as if he never touched me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I feel it necessary to point out that I'm black. I don't want anyone to think that Merles racism is my inner most thoughts on black people. I'm not like Trixy the not so innocent 13 year old ****crackin on orientals in the comments to some harmless juggling video. Oddly specific example but you get the gist of what I'm saying.**

* * *

**Daryl's P.O.V.**

With Merle being the racist that he is, I anticipated his bigoted remarks. I personally wasn't bothered by the fact that Dolores was black. I respected her. There was something about the way she held herself when we met. Even with my crossbow pointed at her chest there was a fire in her eyes like she was willing to fight regardless of who held the upper hand, which was extremely rare nowadays. There is also the fact that she had that raccoon with her. Clearly she knew how to hunt. If that wasn't a dead give away, her healthy appearance was. She may not have been the cleanest but she still looked good. Dolores was a tall woman, only an inch shorter that me making her 5'9". She wore a ripped white t-shirt that exposed her braw straps and denim cut off short. On her right hip she had a Desert Eagle with a silencer, a machete on her left, and a garter with cartridges wrapping her thigh. Dolores must have been strong because her backpack was quite large and she had a rifle draped over it. Her afro had been pulled back with a head band and framed her chocolate colored face.

Growing up in a small town I rarely encountered black people but unlike most of my town I didn't have a problem when I did. As long as they weren't the rowdy and hood like, I never had a problem. As a man I acknowledged the fact that women were attractive but never let anyone know if I thought the black ones were. There was something about Dolores that drew me in. Maybe it was just because of the fact that when I looked at her, I saw a hunter just like myself.

Walking down to my part of camp I plopped down on a log and started skinning my catch waiting for Merle to speak up instead of just glaring at me. "Of all the bitches ya coulda brought here, it had to be a nigger." I didn't want to deal with Merle's bigoted mouth right now and just told him to shut up.

"At least she aint useless like that other coon T-Dogg. And for a nigger she's got a nice lil body. Bet she'd make good company on these cold nights." Merle threw his head back laughing at his own lewd joke. "That's what they do best ya know." Knowing it was best to ignore him I continued to skinning my squirrels. Stealing a glance at the camp, I saw our newest member skinning her raccoon.

* * *

**Dolore's P.O.V.**

The sun was just starting to set and everyone in the camp was gathered around the fire. That is with the exception of the Dixon brothers and Carol's family. From what I was told, the Dixon's are loners and a little racist. The others didn't need to tell me anything to realize that Ed was abusing his family. I had always been observant so I saw it almost instantaneously. As for the rest of the camp they seemed friendly enough, Shane overly so. Other than that everything was fine.

"So," Lori asked from her seat beside Shane, "What did you do before all this?" I noticed that she had started to keep a closer eye on me once she realized Shane was eyeing her. They either had something going on or she wanted there to be. They were sitting so closely that I would put my money on the former.

"I worked at a sporting goods store. I was a summer job I took while waiting for my next semester at Cornell." From the corner on my eyes I saw Daryl look up with poorly veiled interest while his brother scoffed.

"What were you studying?" Amy asked "I was studying to become a mathematician. Probably become a professor myself."

"Impressive." Dale added, "And this was going to be your first year?"

"No, third. I graduated high school at 16. I was valedictorian too." The people around the camp looked at me in awe. This kind of response was normal to me by now. "How old are you now?" Shane asked

"Just turned 19." Shan looked like he was having sort of internal struggle that no one else seemed to notice. Probably debating on wether he should keep on leering at me like a pervert. Looking away from the others my eyes drifted to Daryl. I needed to thank him for taking me here. This is the first time in a while that I've seen some decent people. When our eyes met I gave him a small smile to try and convey my gratitude. I couldn't help but notice that for a redneck Daryl was quite attractive in a robust kind of way. He returned my smile with a smirk that made my mind go blank for a moment. Breaking his gaze I looked back to my plate of raccoon and beans then continued to eat. I felt content knowing that I finally could eat and sleep well in a safe environment.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dolores' P.O.V.**

In the 3 weeks that I've stayed with the group one thing I realized is that they have barley seen the extent of what this world. All of them seem to be trying desperately to live a normal life. They have a little 'school' set up and most of them (mainly the women) walk around unarmed. Some don't even have knifes on them. They just walk around like they're in Pleasantville. Some of the other women were even a little perturbed by me waling around constantly armed with my machete and gun. As nice as it is to sleep at nights again I didn't trust Dale with my safety. I could only handle but so much of this false security in their patriarchy society.

The only reason I can sleep at night is because I know that Daryl is a light sleeper and usually sit outside at night. He is someone I know I can trust. During my stay we have gotten friendlier. He became my hunting buddy as well. That is until his brother wanted to go out hunting, which was rare seeing as he preferred to to be doped up over doing a minimal amount of work. Merle becomes an even bigger asshole when he's like that but I can easily deal with it. Being a New Yorker I learned to ignore others with ease. If I could handle the Christian zealots and singing men in cat costumes on the subway I'm sure I could handle Merle's bigoted bull shit. Granted it's difficult without my iPod or a book to distract me but I've gotten better at it.

Luckily for me, today Daryl and I were out hunting so I didn't have to deal with Merle or Shane. Turns out Shane is okay with me being only 19 and kept on hitting on me. He would sit awfully close at dinner, ask me to patrol with him, and even asked me intimate questions like the lecher he was. Clearly one woman wasn't enough for him. Lori's giving it up to him whenever he wants yet he's looking for another fuck buddy. He was just as bad as Merle who, for a racist, made a lot of sexual remarks to me. He invited me to his tent on a weekly basis to play 'hide the pickle'. Pushing those perverts out of my mind I focused on tracking with Daryl. My skills weren't as good as his but I could do a decent job.

"Been meaning ta ask ya, where'd ya learn this stuff? Cuz I know they don't teach this in math class."

"Learned it for fun." I told him, "Read a bunch of books on people trying to survive the apocalypse and thought that stuff sounded cool. My parents humored me and took my to self defense lessons, shooting lesson, and bought me books on plant life. That stuff came in handy when I needed to defend myself or get some food. How about you? Who taught you all this stuff because you seem to be quite the survivalist?"

Daryl's shoulders got stiff as if I asked him something taboo. Maybe he was just nervous. Nobody at came, with the exception of Merle and I, seemed to talk to him and when they did it must have felt foreign to him. Probably still couldn't believe that I spoke to him.

"My old man taught me ta track when I was a kid. Merle helped me with the shootin. Pop didn't make much so we got our food huntin." Daryl explained

"Lucky you." I joked, "Here I was wasting cash when I coulda been poaching. You southerners got it made." I saw Dayls lips twitch into a smirk. It was nice to know he was loosening up around me. Two weeks ago he would have snapped at me for joking about stuff like this now he just appreciated my efforts at making him laugh. "One of these days, I'm gonna have you in stitches Dixon. Not just smirking trying to play Mr. Cool."

Once again he smirked at me. "Nice ta know I'm cool now." With a quiet chuckle I held my finger to my lip. "Hush no cool guy. Foods coming." I whispered pointing to a deer that stood a great distance from us in a clearing. Creeping into the bushes I lied on my stomach with my rifle in place. Daryl usually let me shoot the big game, it was easier than taking a bullet out of a small animal. You loose almost half the meat. Walking to the now dead deer Daryl and I bonded its hooves together and put a long stick between both it's front and hind legs to support it as we carried it back to camp. Once we reached camp we skinned it and prepared it for the women once we were done I collected the skins. Since I didn't want to waste any part of my catch I decided to tan their hides and make clothes.

The others allowed me to use one of the picnic tables to stretch out the pelt so I could remove any excess flesh or fat once it dried. Luckily for me Daryl was so good at this that there was really nothing much to scrape off. 'Kudos to you Double D'. As I waited I sat one of the tables seats in a comfortable silence. Allas nothing last forever because Shane had to swagger over disturbing my mood. "What ya up to?" he said sitting far too close for comfort.

"Tanning this deer hide." I replied unemotionally. "Was gonna make some pants."

Shane smirked, leering at my exposed legs as he always did when I wore shorts. Scooting closer he said in a husky whisper "Well, quite frankly I like your look. No need ta go changin it now." I just stayed silent. "I see you're gettin awfully friendly with Dixon. I'll warn you now he's not good company to have. Him and his brother. They're not good for ya." Shane warned. Ironic how the person I trust the least is warning me about the person I trust the most.

"With all due respect Mr. Walsh, I think Daryl makes great company out of everyone here." I drawled, "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go hang with my hunting partner."

* * *

**Daryl's P.O.V.**

Sitting at my section of camp I used my knife to sharpen sticks to make more arrows. Every now and then I would steal glances at Dolores, who was sitting by Shane. I was clear that Shane was trying in vain to pull the moves on Dolores but she wasn't given in. It always amazed him how easily she would shoot him down. Most of the girls at this camp would be tripping over themselves to get with a 'strong man' that would feed their delusion of normality. Dolores on the other hand didn't need that. She was a strong, confident woman who didn't need Shane's 'help'. Although I understood that I couldn't understand why she flocked to me. I had nothing to offer her so why was she hanging around me. As I continued to ponder over this I saw Dolores storm away from Shane and over to me. Quickly averting my eyes from her I looked back to my makeshift arrow and tried to look busy. She sat down on one of the empty lawn chairs near me and crossed her long legs. I must have been staring because she asked me if I was alright. I glanced at her light brown eyes then looked back to my arrow with a nod.

"So," I muttered pointing briefly at the picnic table where Shane sat staring at us, "What ya makin?"

"Oh, just some assless chaps for you cowboy." Dolores said shooting me a goofy smile.

"You're more of a perv than Merle. No one gets a look at these goods for free." I joked. Funny because I never felt this comfortable talking to a woman sober. Hell, she even laughed at that joke.

"Sorry couldn't resist a free show." Dolores's laugh was so light and girly. Ironic because she was the least girly woman I've met by far. Sure some girls in my town could hunt but not like Dolores. In fact I just realized that I was calling Dolores a _woman_ while I called all other _girls._ In my eyes Dolores was the only woman who I saw as my equal.

"If ya want I could shoot Shane in the ass fer ya." Once again she laughed her girly laugh making smile. "Thanks but I'll pass. But you should try smiling more. You look good." Hearing her compliment me was just odd yet pleasant. I tried to hold her gaze as she smiled at me. It was a surprisingly nice change of pace to have a nice conversation with a woman like this without either of us having a single drink. As nice as it was I had to push those thoughts out of my mind. Dolores was too good of a woman to be with a man like me. I'm not saying she should be with shane either but she just deserved much better.

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**Please Review! I wanna know how everyone feels about this because I got a good feeling about this chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

I'm not liking this story. I think I'm going to stop this and start another story with a new character. I think I'm still going to make her ethnic though just because I know Merle would disapprove.


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